First genome-wide, single-base-resolution maps

Joe Ecker is senior author on a paper that provides the first genome-wide, single-base-resolution maps of methylated cytosines in a mammalian genome. Comparing both human embryonic stem cells and fetal fibroblasts, they found “widespread differences” between the two, including almost one-quarter of all methylation in embryonic stem cells was in a non-CG context, suggesting that embryonic stem cells may use different methylation mechanisms to affect gene regulation, they write.

Research led by Joel Levine, a neuroscientist from the University of Toronto, has determined that Drosophila melanogaster flies use a single chemical to communicate gender and sibling identity in order to pick the right sex partners. By inserting a transgene into the fly’s genome that killed cells that produced these special hydrocarbon signaling chemicals, they report that hydrocarbon-free male flies attempted copulating with each other, says a story at the BBC. Check out the accompanying video, too.